Simple system
This is a system based on simplicity and narration. Hence, there is no health system and no armor system, nor any damage system for that matter. Combat and any other conflicts are handled through dice rolls, and will be narrated rather than played out following a strict system. Dice rolling and succeeding In this game, to attempt something, a player normally rolls a dice. This dice will be equal to his "skill score" (for instance a d6). The number 5 and above indicates a success. The lowest possible dice to roll is a d4, and the highest is a d20. A success is better if it's on a high number, and 5 indicates only a narrow scraped success. A bonus or penalty can be applied to the roll, coming into effect after the dice is rolled, affecting the end result. Sometimes, a particular task might be time consuming or especially demanding, resulting in an extended roll. A player may then roll once for each dice category he has (once for a d4, twice for a d6 and so forth). Contested dice rolls is about who succeeds the most. When two characters roll against each other, they roll their respective dice, as if making an extended action. If a character succeeds when another character does not, this is considered a point. If both characters succeed, but one succeeds more, the one who has the better success get's a point. Attributes Every character has a number of attributes, there are six total. All attributes start at 1d4, which is considered below average. 1d6 is considered average, while 1d8 is above average (good), 1d10 is considered exceptional, a 1d12 is considered peak of human capacity and 1d20 is considered beyond the scope of human capability. For instance, a human can achieve a strength of 1d12 (though few have), but a horse would have 1d20 as it's strength goes beyond human capacity. A starting character must have at least two attributes at 1d8 or instead they have one at 1d10. Another allowed build is two have 1d10 and 1d8 but have a single attribute at 1d4, or three at 1d8 and one at 1d4 or finally one one at 1d12 and one at 1d4. This means any starting character essentially has a total of 8 attribute raises before game start, but one of the above builds should be chosen for simplicity and streamlining. Attributes serve mainly as a capacity on a character's skills and abilities. For instance, a character with a Strength of 1d8 cannot raise a skill that the GM has determined is strength based, above 1d8. The contributing attribute to a skill (not to abilities though) offers a +1 bonus to a skill check, for each dice category that the attribute is above the skill. These bonuses will of course be weighed against potential penalties. If a character doesn't have a certain skill, he can roll an attribute instead, but doing this requires the character to spend "effort", and a success, regardless of how good, only counts as a narrow success, unless the dice comes up as a 4, in which case the success is considered excellent. Strength A character's physical strength. Stamina A character's endurance and condition. Agility A character's speed, motor-function and reaction time. Intelligence A character's IQ and raw mental capacity. Resolve A character's power of will. Charisma A character's power of personality. Abilities Abilities are similar to skills, but a character always has them and the ability description describes what constitutes a raise to an ability. Abilities are also typically used for certain things in the game, and correlate with specific mechanics. Awareness Awareness is a characters general attention to detail. This stat is mainly used by the DM and is never rolled by the player. Awareness is raised by each point in Agility and Intelligence. Wit A character's ability to think outside the box on his feet to avoid tunnel vision and retort quickly. Wits is raises when intelligence and charisma are raised. Composure Composure is a character's general ability to keep a level head in pressed situations. Fighting A catch all skill for a character's martial prowess. Fighting is contributed to by many factors. Strength and agility are the two primary, but skills may offer additional bonuses to fighting. Condition Condition represents a characters raw ability to push on when things get tough. It's contributed to by Stamina and Resolve. Skills Skills need to be fairly specific, such as "smart phone repairs". A skill only works if the player can argue that it is relevant. Traits Traits describe a character, here are a few examples: "Sporty", "inquisitive", "lazy", "diligent" and so on. These traits do not do anything specific, but in some cases, they can allow a character to roll using his attribute without spending effort, on certain things or they will simply offer a bonus/penalty to certain things. Traits cannot be raised and are simply there, or aren't there, but they cost skillpoints. Negative traits offer points that can be used to buy more traits without spending skill points at a 2:1 ratio in favor of negative traits (two negative traits for a positive trait). The GM has the final say in what counts as a negative trait. Traits need to be a single adjective that describes the character. Traits may only in very rare cases be temporary, and you may not add an adjective to your adjective when building a trait (i. e. you cannot be "very sporty"). Traits should reflect the character's chosen attributes and skills, and may not be the same as terms used in abilities, the personality system or in the attributes (for instance, you cannot select "strong" as a trait). Ultimately traits are at the GM's discretion. As the game develops, a list of traits and what they do will be created. Background Every character has a background. In no more than 15 words, you must give a super compressed description of your character's background. Example: "Average middle-class North-American upbringing in Christian home with white parents. High expectations, but some trouble." When ever faced with a situation where you lack a skill to do something you figure a character with your background should be able to do, you can argue that a character with your background should know something about it, and you may be allowed to roll a d6. For instance, if your character has to read something in Spanish, but doesn't know Spanish according to his skills or ethnicity, and you have the above background, it wouldn't be far-fetched to assume that your character has studied a bit of Spanish, and you might be allowed to roll a d6 to try. Training package A training package is similar to a background, but it's described with either a single word or title, or an extremely short description. For instance: "Military" or even more specific "Navy". If you don't know what it's called, you can describe it. "Close adviser to minister of foreign affairs". Mechanically, these packages function the same way as backgrounds. They must be bought, but prices may vary. Personality system The personality system features five factors that are scaled 1-10. At 1, a character is the opposite of what the factor suggests (i.e. a character with 1 in selfishness is selfless), and at 10 the character is consumed by the factor (i.e. a character with 10 Fear is perfectly hysterical). But a character has three numbers for each factor instead of just one. The first number represents the character's original true self, the second number is a character's ideal and finally the last number represents recent changes. The five factors are: Selfishness, Anger, Ambition, Fear, Regret. If the player adds together all the numbers in his first row (all the true self numbers), he has his integrity score. If the player adds together all the numbers of his ideal scores, he has his conviction. If the player adds together the numbers of his recent changes scores, he has his current "stability" score. Every time a character has a "recent changes" that differs from his true self or from his ideal, the character, that character is prone to receive an instability effect which will remain until the character's score changes back to what it was before the effect was received, or until the character manages to change his ideal or true self. If a character's instability score at any time becomes more than either true self or ideal, a character will suffer severe drawbacks.